A famous Iraqi tiktoker, sentenced to prison last year for publishing content considered “indecent” on social media, was shot dead this Friday (26), in Baghdad, security officials said.
Om Fahad, who had tens of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, became famous for videos in which she appears in tight clothes dancing to the rhythm of songs from Iraq, a mostly conservative and patriarchal country.
The young woman was shot dead by a man on a motorcycle while she was inside her vehicle, in front of her house, in the center of Baghdad, the officials, who preferred not to be identified, told AFP.
In February 2023, a court sentenced Om Fahad in the first instance to six months in prison for “publishing videos with indecent intentions and that violate modesty and public customs”.
The Iraqi government last year launched a campaign to identify and search social media for “decadent content that goes against the morals and traditions” of society. To this end, it created an electronic platform that allowed the population to report inappropriate publications.
Several social media stars have been sentenced to prison or forced to apologize for their sometimes humorous or satirical content. In 2018, model and influencer Tara Fares was murdered in Baghdad with multiple gunshots in her white convertible car.
In Iraq, hit by decades of conflict, the circulation of weapons is widespread, although security forces have begun a campaign to recover this arsenal.
(AFP)
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